Porch-shade.



A. C. HOUGH.

PORCH SHADE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7,.1913.

1,252,.1 12. Patented Jan. 1,1918;

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LIGHT GPE'E o at Wu mint 1%.. HE-E WITNESSES; 1 MVE/VTOR ATTORNEICS.

A. C. HOUGH.

PORCH SHADE. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7, ma.

2 SHEBTSSHEET 2.

4 o o u FEEL & E'HEL iV/TZVESgESi I L'VVENTOR.

fie Q7 @atw AZEL C. HOUGH, OF JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.

PORCH-SHADE.

Application filed November 7,1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, A2121. 0. HoUoH, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Janesville, in the county of Rock and State ofWisconsin, have invented a new and useful Porch-Shade, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in shades, which are commonlytermed porch shades for the reason that they areso extensively employedin connection with porches, and which include in their con-- structionweft units made of strips of wood, and consists essentially of a shademade up with alternately arrangedwide and narrow slats, as hereinafterset forth.

It will be clearly understood by all who are skilled in the art ofchromatics that, where the slats of a shade are of the same widththroughout such shade, it is impracticable not to say impossible to usea very great number of color combinations. which are available and canbe readily utilized to great advantage when some of the slats arenarrower than others, or in other words, when the slats contrast witheach other in width as well as in color. It is inadvisable orimpracticable for example, to associate together or use in conjunctionwith one another wide' slats, where there is very strong color contrastbetween different slats, the reason for this obviously resulting, notfrom the fact that the color combination in itself may be inharmonious,but rather from the fact that two adjacent slats in contrasting colorsbulk alike and so produce a fabric that is-inartistic, and is entirelvimpossible so far as shade making and selling are concerned.

To illustrate the point in question, let it be assumed that. in a shade,wide tan colored slat be followed bv a narrow seal brown slat, and thelatter followed by a wide light green slat, and this light green slatfollowed by another seal brown slat, this combination being repeated asoften as necessary to make up the shade, regardless of its size. Theresult thus secured must be entirely harmonious and extremely pleasingto the eye, whereas the same color combinations with all wide'slats orwith all narrow slats would, from the artistic standpoint,be impossible,and from thetrade selling standpoint enti'relyimpracticable; Thefacttha-t a small nt asting loa thatis s y;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 1, 1918.

Serial No. 799,804.

the amount displayed on a narrow slat, can be interposed between twowide slats of a different (yet harmonizing) color or colors, adds verygreatly to the range of desirable color combinations possible andavailable, hence the difference in results to be obtained by the use ofwide and narrow slats in the same shade, over the results to be obtainedby the use of all wide or all narrow slats is exceedingly great.

The principal object of my invention, therefore,- is toprovide' meansfor greatly enhancing the appearance'of shades, at the same time forincreasing widely the range of available color combinationsor schemesfor shades, in accordance with the statements hereinbefore appearing, tothe end that shades areproduced of improved appearance in texture andcolor in great va.-. riety, hence of greater value both to producer andconsumer.

Another object of my inventionis to produce a shade which will roll andunroll more readily than shades of the old type with wide slatsthroughout, and which can be rolled into a smaller compass than can theold type of shade.

Still another object is to cheapen the construction of shades byemploying therein weft units or slats of different widths.

ther objects and advantages will appear in the course of the followingdescription.

I attain the objects and secure the advantages of my invention by themeans illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is aside elevation of a shade which embodies my invention in a practicalform; Fig. 2, an edge view of said shade; Fig. 3, a side elevation of aportion of a shade-which is slightly modified from the constructionfirst shown, and, Fig. 4:, a side elevation of a portion'of a shade,disclosing a construction which slightly differs from either of theother two.

Similar figures refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views.

Although I have shown and will describe in detail only threeconstructions or forms of my invention, it' is to be understood thatthere are a great variety of other constructions' or forms thereof, andthat I do not, therefore, desire or intend to be restricted to the threeherein just mentioned.

Referring to the cflrawings, it: will be. obi-- served that, in itsgeneral aspect, my invention relates to and includes a shade of wovenvariety and comprising alternately arranged, and contrasting in textureor in both texture and color, wide and narrow weft units 1 and 2respectively, held in place relative to each other by means of warpstrands 3. These constitute the body of the shade, and there are usuallyprovided for such body, at the top and bottom, some suitable means forsupporting and weighting the shade, such means in the present caseconsisting of a strip 4 on each side or on front and back of theuppermost slat, which is one of the slats 1,. and of the lowermost slat,which is also a wide slat 1. The upper pair of strips 1 is nailed orotherwise secured to the top slat 1 and the same thing is true of thelower pairof strips 4: relative to the'bottom slat 1.

In the first view there is a single narrow strip 2 between each adjacentpair of wide strips 1; and in this view is depicted the color scheme setforth in detail in the earlier part of this specification, in order toserve as an illustration of the contrasting feature relative to colorsor shades, as well as the contrast in texture. It has not been deemednecessary to work out the chromatic contrast in the last two views.

In Fig. 3 there are two narrow strips 2 interposed between each pair ofadjacent wide strips 1, while in Fig. 4 there are three narrow stripsbetween each pair of adjacent wide strips, except at the bottom.

It must now be clear that numerous different combinations are madepossible by the use of wide and narrow strips, especially so byintroducing into the construction the art of chromatics, and thatsubstantial ground is found for the advantages hereinbefore presented atsome length.

The employment of narrow slats of less width than has usually beenemployed, where the slats are of like width throughout, enables me toconstruct a shade at less expense than heretofore, because of the factthat narrow slats may be made from material which would otherwise bewaste material, and, as the narrow slats are more flexible than the wideslats, they can be handled more rapidly in a machine designed for themanufacture of the shade by machinery. The wide slats, however, give thedesired strength, rigidity and resistance against diagonal thrust whichwould not be obtained if the. shade were made wholly of narrow slats.lVhen a porch shade of the slat construction is made wherein the slatsare all of the same width, the warp strands by which the slats are heldin position are affected by changes of atmosphere and give and take orstretch and shrink, thus at different times becoming slightly elongated.This, how- 5 ever, does not occur uniformly throughout rated, thuspresenting openings between the edges of the slats which are not uniformin width from end to end and which are readily noticeable, causing theshade to present an objectionable appearance, or, in other words, takingfrom the shade that uniform appearance requisite to give the'desired'satisfaction and commercial value. It is to be noted also that when thewarp strands are elongated the elongation takes place to the largestextent where the greatest weight is supported, so that the open shadedraws most heavily on the portion of the warp strands at the top of theshade, because-of the weight below, and the drawing or stretchingbecomes less toward the bottom. This is objectionable because the shadewhen so distorted presents an unsatisfactory ap pearance, with wide openslits at the top and narrow open slits at the bottom. Now, while theseobjections from a mechanical standpoint may not be overcome, the effect7 or result so far as objectionable appearance is concerned is overcomeby theemployment of both wide and narrow slats, because the variation inthe general appearance of the shade caused by variation in widths of theslats presents to the eye of the observer the predominant feature, andthe lesser irregularities, because of the variations in the widths ofthe'openings between the slats, are

not noticeable. It is a well recognized fact that minor imperfections orminor details are not noticeable when found in conjunc tion with largerand more noticeable variations or difierences, so that the markeddifference'in appearance caused by variations in the widths of the slatsovershadows the diflerences or imperfections in the width of theopenings between the slats, and the same is not noticeable so that,while any defect of this character might prove a serious objection in ashade having slats all of the same width, it is found that it is not atall :objectionable in a shade having slats of different widths, and thecommercial value of the shade made up of slats of different widths isnot injuriously affected by reason of the defects before referred to andwhich are seriously objectionable in a shade made up of slats of thesame width.

The common width of slats for shades of this character, when they aremade all of the same width, is approximately seveneighths of an inch,because seven-eighths of an inch is the recognized standard thickness inboard measure of regular stock material, the boards being sawed in therough at one inch and when planed one-sixteenth of an inch is taken fromeach surface and the slats are cut from the edge of a dressed board andthis material has a standard value in the market and the expense ofmanufacture of articles from stock of this kind cannot be lessened toany material extent, and, if any portion of the shade can be made up ofslats of less Width than the thickness of standard measure, then thestock comes from a field of supplies which in a great measure is classedas Waste and for this reason a shade may be made at less expense. Such ashade contains therein or in part consists of slats Which are of a Widthof material or of a material the Width of Which is of less thicknessthan the standard recognized in the trade.

That these shades are economical in the utilization of Weft material,and are flexible and capable of being compactly rolled, are allself-evident facts.

I make no claim herein to any particular weave or to any special top andbottom construction, but What I do claim as my invention, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

As an improved article of manufacture, a porch shade consisting of aplurality of Warp strands, a plurality of Wide flat-sided Weft units inthe Warp at intervals, and a plurality of narrow flat-sided Weft unitsarranged in said Warp in the intervals between said Wide units, saidWeft units being separated from each other by said Warp strands.

AZEL C. HOUGH.

Witnesses:

ALFRED C. FAIRBANKS, F. A. CUTTER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

